Sweet and Low
by Neon Genesis
Summary: So this is how easily a Queen is brought to her knees. Sasuke x Sakura. Alternate Universe. On Hiatus.
1. Chapter 1

**Sweet and Low**

_Hold me down, sweet and low, little girl  
Hold me down and I'll carry you home_

In her simple maid's dress, Tenten wove through the throng of people crowding the ballroom, seeking a better view of the dais. She had arrived in this small but highly powerful and influential country little more than a week ago, and now for the first time she would get to see her possible target up-close.

There she was, upon her throne. Haruno Sakura, the newly crowned girl-queen. Pretty as a picture, she sat with perfect posture, her pastel pink skirts fanning around her ankles elegantly. Her hair, the same color as her gown, was pinned up, with only a few strands left loose to frame her face. A glittering crown rested atop her head.

She looked delicate and feminine, and it made Tenten suspect that what her employers thought was correct: the girl was a puppet, a doll to sit on the throne and smile while people in the shadows wielded the real power. And yet there was something in her green eyes, a calm, assessing intelligence that made Tenten hesitate every so slightly.

There might just be more to her than a pretty face.

Movement near the throne caught her eye. A young man in uniform had taken up position near the queen, his stance protective and alert. Tenten recognized him immediately: Uchiha Sasuke, younger brother of Uchiha Itachi, the Duke of Konoha, and captain of the elite force that was the Queen's Personal Guard.

_As handsome as they say_, Tenten noticed clinically. She found the Uchiha family to be quite interesting; their line was far more ancient than that of the royal family, the Haruno, their blood much bluer. It was said that the Haruno family only came to power with the aid of the Uchiha, and that, if the Uchiha ever chose to, they could snatch the throne away easily. It was also said the Uchiha remained as nobles because they preferred the rule from the shadows.

She studied the two for a moment, Haruno Sakura and Uchiha Sasuke, watching as they exchanged soft words, their heads angled in such a way that their lips couldn't be read. They didn't touch, and throughout the conversation they both maintained fairly neutral expressions, but Tenten could discern that they were very close.

She drummed her fingers against her hip absently. She had been sent to the Land of Fire to observe the girl-queen and await further instructions as to whether she should kill the young monarch or find a way to use her.

Tenten made a mental note that whatever her orders turned out to be, it would probably be Uchiha Sasuke that would stand in her way.

~x~

Sakura sighed as she removed the crown from her head, setting it aside as she pulled at her hair, allowing it to cascade down her back. Her coronation had been less than two weeks ago, and it was still difficult for her to get used to the weight of the crown perched atop her head.

She froze when she heard the door to her private chambers open and close quietly, but instantly relaxed when she heard the most familiar of voices. "Sakura."

A small smile on her lips, she turned to him. "Sasuke." As always, she felt a compulsion to run to him, but she quelled it. She watched as he slowly drew nearer to her with his panther-grace. Gods, he was just so beautiful. A lock of his raven hair fell forward to partially obscure his equally dark eyes, and she wanted so desperately to brush it away.

She clasped her hands and waited. Sasuke was like a bird, in some ways; chasing after him didn't work. She had to stand still and allow him to come to her. And when he did, it was the most amazing thing.

He stopped a little more than a foot from her. "You're okay?" he asked, his voice low and smooth and compelling.

Sakura knew what he was asking. The reason that she was queen was because her father had died in a riding accident three weeks ago. Her mother, the former queen, wasted away in the palace infirmary; she had always been sickly and fragile, and the tragic death of her husband had pushed her over the edge, leaving her too ill to rule the country in his stead—to even get out of bed.

With Sasuke, she couldn't lie. "No. I don't know. More or less. I just…" she shook her head. Her polished eloquence and regality faded around Sasuke, her closest friend, her maybe-lover.

Around him, she was not a queen, just a girl.

He nodded, possibly understanding or maybe just accepting, but it didn't matter, because in his eyes she saw an affirmation to a question she hadn't vocally asked, a go-ahead that allowed her to do what she ached to do.

She closed the space between them, winding her arms around his neck and kissing him softly, tenderly. After a moment one of his arms wrapped around her waist, pulling her closer, and the other played with the ends of her hair.

It was new for them, this kissing thing. Sakura had known him her entire life, but only a few months ago had she mustered the nerve to kiss him—and it was always her that instigated it, but after the first time she waited for him to express his permission. Sasuke was a very private, introverted person, and Sakura respected that.

She didn't notice that he had been maneuvering them until she found her back pressed against the wall, and Sasuke used his newfound leverage to deepen the kiss. Sakura cracked her eyes open so that she could see his punishingly lovely face—the face of an angel.

_Mine. He's mine. _She wanted to believe it, even almost did.

And she felt them on her tongue, the words she shouldn't say. _I love you. I love you. Oh, gods, how I love you. _

The words she wasn't allowed to say.

* * *

...Well. Wassup, people? This is just the prologue to a story that I may or may not continue - I just wanna see if I can maybe get into the mood for writing SasuSaku again. To my complete surprise, the latest manga chapter was actually pretty good. And because I just said that, the next chapter will be complete crap. 'Cause that's how my life goes.

If I do continue this story, whatever questions you have about the plot will probably be answered later on. I'm just telling you now, I shamelessly screwed with the universe on this one. Kinda Renaissance-ish but with a healthy dose of Oriental flavoring? And yes, I _do _realize how absurd that is. -is shot- Anywho, the title and the lyrics at the top are from Augustana's song "Sweet and Low." -rocks out-

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto.


	2. Chapter 2

**Sweet and Low**

Orochimaru, Lord of Oto, looked down from his balcony at the discord he had sown, the chaos he had orchestrated, and smiled in satisfaction. The mob was stirred-up and angry, churning and roiling in a great mass of dark emotions. They wanted blood, and he would give it to them.

Finally, he deigned it time to set the whole thing in motion. Moving forward until his hands rested on the railing, he waited until they quieted out of equal parts respect and fear. Just as it was supposed to be.

"Citizens of the Land of Fire," he called out. "For countless years you have toiled and labored and spilt blood, all for a king that you never see, a ruler that does not care. And now the old king is dead, leaving who in control of your fate?

"A _girl-child_. A sheltered, spoilt little brat that has never worked a day in her life, never lifted a finger. She sits ensconced in her sprawling palace, surrounded by her jewels and fineries and luxuries—that she taxes _you _to pay for!" A roar of outrage built up in the crowd. "Good people, are you satisfied with that? To be ordered about by the whims of a girl-queen?

"Are you content to be ruled by a _child_?"

Receiving the inevitable answer, he smiled again—a cold, sharp thing, gleaming with malice. "Then do not settle! Do not acquiesce! Rise up and take for yourselves the power and wealth and glory that were rightfully yours from the start!"

The crowd roared again, not only with cheers of approval, but cries of bloodlust.

Just as it was supposed to be.

~x~

Sakura woke in the night to find a face looming over her, with skin pale as the moon, eyes dark as the abyss.

"S-Sasuke," she started. "What—?"

"No time," he cut her off, pulling her out of bed. Dressed all in black and with his sword strapped to his hip, his eyes were intense, the corners of his mouth drawn back and tight, a bow ready to loose an arrow. "Put breeches and boots on under your nightgown. Hurry!"

"I don't understand," she implored as she hastened to do as instructed, too bewildered to even be embarrassed as she hiked up her nightgown to pull on a beige pair of breeches. "What is happening? Are we under attack? Answer me, Sasuke!" she commanded in her most monarchial tone, while at the same time trying to keep her voice from shaking.

"Lord Orochimaru," he muttered as he helped her lace up her boots. "He's raised an army to overthrow you. They're already ramming the palace gates."

"I—_overthrow _me?" she repeated incredulously as her longtime protector settled her black traveling cloak over her shoulders and helped her fasten it at the throat, obscuring the white of her nightclothes. "Sasuke—"

"Hood up," he barked, and yanked the piece of fabric over her head for her. Taking her by the arm, he hauled her out of her private chambers and down a narrow stairway only meant to be used by the servants.

Sakura stared at his back as she found herself dragged along. He was _never _this rough with her, and she couldn't help but feel indignant, even under the circumstances. But—she was being overthrown? Oh, Gods, she thought with increasing panic, oh, Gods.

"So we... we're just _fleeing_?" she demanded. "Abandoning everyone?"

Sasuke spared a second to look over his shoulder and glare at her as he led her out an exit that deposited them near the royal stables. He had a horse—heralded as the palace's fastest—tethered and ready to be mounted. "I'm keeping you alive," he hissed. "That's my job, and I'll thank you not to interfere with it."

Stung, she recoiled, and refrained from responding in kind. It _was _a priority, she reminded herself logically, trying to detach herself from what was actually happening by retreating into the realm of cool assessment and uninvolved rationality.

Up until that point, the battering ram had been steadily beating at the gate like the pounding of a war drum, and then finally the rebels broke through and spilled inside like a tidal wave, brandishing weapons that they quickly used against the hastily-assembled palace guards.

"Shit," Sasuke swore under his breath. "We'll have to wait until they're distracted for an opportunity to escape." Though they, in their dark attire, were unable to be detected in the shadow of the stable, Sakura bit back a whimper and huddled close to his side, seeking the security of his touch.

Metal struck metal as the battle raged in earnest, and even though she couldn't see, she knew her guards, outnumbered and under-prepared, were being hacked to pieces. The screams of the dying and the rebels' feral shouts of delight and victory overcame her. She fought the urge to retch.

_So this is how easily a Queen is brought to her knees._

~x~

When he heard the rebels charging past the stable to force their way into the palace, Sasuke grabbed Sakura and pulled her deeper into the shadows. One of his hands clutched her to his chest; the other kept a white-knuckled grip on the pommel of his sword.

For what must have been the thousandth time in less than an hour, he cursed his own foolishness, his complacency, for letting this happen in the first place. Because he had failed at his job, she was in danger—

She being Sakura, who had been his ever since he saved her from falling off a balcony when they were both five. Sakura, who was his to protect, his to defend, his to cherish and watch over.

As Queen, she rightfully belonged to the country, but truthfully she belonged to Sasuke.

A scream caught his attention. At first and with alarm, he thought it had come from the girl in his arms, but then he realized it had been torn from the throat of a woman that the rebels were dragging out of the palace.

Her body was pale and eaten-away, her eyes sunken and hazy with delusion and terror. She was clad in the white attire of an infirm.

"Mother," Sakura whispered, her voice small and breathless and horrified and suddenly sounding so young, so young.

"Sakura," he said sharply, trying to steal her attention, but to no avail. The rebels dragged the old queen up onto a platform in the middle of the courtyard that was used to give public announcements and forced her to kneel.

The man that Sasuke recognized as Orochimaru, the Lord of Oto—a thin, sick-pale man with long black hair and terrible amber eyes—drew his sword from his scabbard and, with little pause for more than a thrilled smile, brought it down.

Her head rolled away like a ball that the servants' children would kick around for sport.

Pressed as close as he was to her, he _felt _the scream that built up in Sakura's chest and rose to be loosed from her lips, but he clamped a hand over her mouth and forced it back down her throat. She fought him, sank her teeth into his palm, drawing blood. She beat at his chest, thrashed in his arms, trying to tear herself free and run to the pieces of her mother.

With a heavy heart, Sasuke bent to position his mouth by her ear.

"Forgive me, Sakura."

A swift, accurate swipe to a certain spot on her neck, and the girl's eyes rolled shut, her knees crumpled. Gathering her to him, he swung himself up into his horse's saddle and put her in front of him to be propped up against his chest.

With one arm around her waist to secure her, Sasuke took advantage of the chaos and jubilation the old queen's execution had brought and raced his mount away, out of little-known side gate.

Galloping at break-neck speed through the night, a dethroned queen in his arms and a taken palace at his back, he thought grimly,

_These be not rebel angels._

* * *

And then they rode to a place far, far away, and lived happily ever after. Until Sasuke went bananas - as, it seems, is his fate.

_... _Um. That last line was an allusion to Lucifer's angels, in case that wasn't blatantly obvious? IDK, my BFF Jill. I just felt like posting another chapter for this; there will probably be at least one more, though I cannot even hope to promise that I'll ever finish this story - which is my right, so don't yell at me. You people know who you are. -stares accusingly- And this took place like, a month after the first chapter. If there is indeed a chapter three, you'll find out what's going down with Tenten. No, I did not just forget about her. She's actually surprisingly fun to write.


	3. Chapter 3

Author's Note: Um... hi. Doubt anyone is reading this, but I'm trying to ease my way back into the Naruto fandom. So... yeah.**  
**

* * *

**Sweet and Low**

Ice-cold drizzle fell from an unhappy gray sky. People, their shoulders hunched up against the bone-chilling wetness, scurried through the large town, attending to necessary errands and looking miserable.

The foul weather, however, suited Sasuke's purposes exactly—it provided an excuse for him and Sakura to keep their cloaks on and hoods up. He was aware that his looks were striking and distinctive, and many people knew of Sakura's unique coloring. At one point while she was still unconscious, he'd taken a break from fleeing to rub dirt into her hair, but it was the flimsiest of disguises and would not stand up to any scrutiny.

Sakura was, of course, awake now, nearly a day and a half after their escape from the palace. Her expression was flat, her movements motorized, her eyes as empty as a drained vial of poison.

She would not speak to him.

It was eating away at him from the inside out—guilt for letting her witness her mother's murder, regret for having her in this position in the first place, wretchedness at being at odds with her. They'd rarely fought, and even then it had been over silly things, but it had always left him forlorn and out of sorts, sulking and skulking around the palace until they made up. Now it was over a hundred times worse.

He hated that he needed her more than she needed him.

As their horse stepped wearily through the all but deserted streets, Sasuke couldn't bear to look at Sakura's face. He feared one glance would make him break down and take her into his arms, tuck her head under his chin and murmur words of comfort and solace in her ear, words that had never come easily to him but would slip from his lips for her alone.

He wanted to hold her close and stroke her hair and whisper, _don't worry, it'll be all right, shh, everything will be just fine._

But the last thing she needed to hear now was a lie.

* * *

Very short, I know. Next one will be longer.

Disclaimer: I do not own _Naruto_.


End file.
